Andrew Carnegie - His Life And Work

Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919

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ANDREW CARNEGIE 1835-1919

IN

MEMORY OF

ANDREW CARNEGIE AND WORK

HIS LIFE

mm A

Meeting Held Under the Auspices of the

Authors Club Public Library Oratorio Society Saint Andrews Society United Engineering Society

NewYork

THE ENGINEERING SOCIETIES BUILDING NewYork,

April 25, 1920

LAUR15T0N CASTLE LIBRARY ACCESSION

PROGRAM i.

Chorus "Laud Ye the Name of the Lord" Rachmaninoff Oratorio Society, Albert Stoessel, Conducting

William Pierson Merrill, D.D.

i.

Invocation

3.

Introductory Remarks

4.

Address

5.

6.

7.

.

.

J.

Vipond Davies,

Presiding

John H. Finley

"Peace-Hymn of the Republic" Walter Damrosch Words by Henry van Dyke Oratorio Society [Audience Participating] .

.

Address

Elihu Root

Chorus "Hallelujah Chorus" Oratorio Society, Albert Stoessel,

Handel Conducting

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS Walter Damrosch

George

J.

Vipond Davies Cleveland H. Dodge John Erskine

Lewis Cass Ledyard

Alex. C. Humphreys Rossiter Johnson

Henry Moir Charles F. Rand Calvin W. Rice Charles M. Schwab

F.

Kunz

Introduction Mr. J. Vipond

Davies, Presiding

President United Engineering Society

Ladies and Gentlemen : It is fitting and proper that the passing

away of one of the who remain pause to consider the lessons of his life to the end that we may not only learn therefrom of those qualities which have made him great to our own advantage, but also as an outward expresgreat

men

of our time should give to us

sion to his family

and

appreciation of his

The

his countless friends of

life

exercises this afternoon are

zations which have been in one

conducted by five organior another closely asso-

way

ciated with the varied aspects of the

Carnegie, whose

our regard and

and works.

life

memory we assemble

work of Mr. Andrew

to honor.

Many

other

would have desired to participate had further expansion been possible. The United Engineering Society having available this auditorium, which it owes to Mr. Carnegie, acts as the host on this occasion. The life and work of Mr. Carnegie has been as familiar and close, not only to those here present who knew him intimately and personally, but also to every person in this great country and to a large measure to those also in Europe, that we can the more readily appreciate the immense diversity of his interests and the association he had with the various societies societies

represented today.

Not only from

the point of view of his business career but

equally as judged by his great beneficences, his philanthropy, his writings, and as a patron of the arts, Mr. Carnegie was one of the truly great men of our time. We delight to come

commemorate his life. Damrosch is not here today, but the Oratorio Society is being conducted by Mr. Stoessel, and they will give us the first number on the program. together to

We

regret that Dr.

ii

:

Invocation Chairman: Mr. Carnegie during his residence in New York was a regular attendant of the Brick Presbyterian Church, of which the Pastor, Dr. William Pierson Merrill, will

now

give the invocation.

Dr. Merrill: Let us pray.

O God

our Father, Maker of all things, Lord of all life, good, Father of all men We give Thee thanks for all Thy good gifts; but most of all

Giver of

all

do we praise Thee for the wonder of the human spirit; for the mastery of man over the facts and forces of the world in which Thou hast set him; and for Thy gift of good and helpful men, who strongly serve Thee and their fellows, who win the favor and affection of those who know them, and who help to build the commonwealth of God and man. Especially do we give thanks to Thee this day for this Thy servant and our friend, in whose memory we are met. For the goodly inward heritage that came to him from the land and the home of his birth; for brave and successful struggle against heavy odds; for leadership in the upbuilding of a mighty industry; for success generously shared with comrades; for recognition and honor and influence achieved and held; for these good things won we thank Thee, as we re-

member him.

We praise Thy name far more for higher qualities and achievements; for his unfailing love and steadfast devotion to the land of his birth and the country of his choice; for the way

his soul won friends and held the affection of associates; steady devotion to the ideals of simple democracy; for clear vision of the power of knowledge and effective aid in for

the education of youth and the enlightenment of great

num-

bers of people; for unremitting hatred of the curse

and folly of law and justice

of war; for unfaltering trust in the ideals and peace; for unfailing confidence that these ideals can 12

become

true,

and

for

shall; for a heart that

unwavering determination that they loved song and art and friendship and

books and men, and the truly good things of life; we praise Thee, O God, the Maker of all. We invoke Thy blessing on all who remember him with affection and gratitude, and on all who, mindful or unmindful of his name, are blessed by his works and influence. We ask Thy continued furtherance of those good works and great ends on which his heart was set. We remember before the throne of Thy grace the vast and deep needs of humanity, beseeching Thee to lead us out into light and justice, into peace and stability, into the Kingdom of God. And, finally, we beseech Thee to bless us, gathered here today, that all our

words and acts may be guided by Thy good spirit of truth, wisdom and love to form a simple and acceptable tribute to this Thy servant, our friend, and a means of confirming in our lives, faithfulness and loyalty to those great ends to which Thy servants have given of their best. In the Name of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

*3

"Mr. Carnegie and His Relation Engineering and Industry" Address by J.Vipond Davies

to

MR.

CARNEGIE'S

relation to Engineering

and In-

dustry constituted that aspect of his life in which he achieved such an immense measure of success that his name stands out in the forefront of all the captains of industry of these modern times. It has commonly been said that this age in which we live is

the

Age of Steel. The leading

figure in the steel industry has

been Mr. Carnegie, who himself grew up with the age, and contributed preeminently to its marvelous development. The war has, however, advanced our country and the world far beyond the narrow limitations of steel into a new Age of Industries in which Engineering, in its multitudinous branches, has been the directing agency in this recent growth of industrial productivity, which has outgrown even the

dreams of the Eastern sages. The industries which represent the skill and handiwork of man have placed Labor in a new relation to the world, in a new democracy which Mr. Carnegie so long ago foresaw and for which he did so much. In coupling the name of Mr. Carnegie with Engineering and the Industries it can truly be said that the three are inseparable. His biography clearly shows how his life from beginning to end was interwoven with the profession of Engineering and the development of the Industries. His relations with Engineering were reciprocal and each was necessary to the other, the directing mind of the Master with the knowledge and skill of the Engineer acting in close cooperation to the production of industry.

Up to the end of the Eighteenth Century, the work of the Engineer was not recognized as separate from the individual work of the architect, ironmaster, mason, or miner, and it was only as science came to be applied to the arts that the Engineer came into being as the Master of Applied Science. The Industries are the practical application of science, directed by the Engineer through the instrumentality of 17

Labor, to the economic production of the supplies and material used by us in our daily life, and it is in directing the development of the industries of the country that Mr. Carnegie is best known to the world. Throughout his life he never hesitated to express his own indebtedness to those Engineers who with him had worked unceasingly and persistently to the evolution of the

new methods

in the

manu-

facture of steel. It

was his own genius

made

for organization

possible the wonderful growth in

and leadership which what stands today as

the greatest manufacturing industry in the world.

The memory

of Mr. Carnegie

spiration to those

who

is

recorded today as an in-

follow in his footsteps, for he has left

behind him those thousands who have learned from him, or to whom he has given the opportunity for learning, who will in turn pass on through the ages the teaching of the example he has left. Mr. Carnegie's work in the development of the railroad and steel industries was not accomplished in these days of extended transmission of knowledge and technical education, but had to be done under less advantageous conditions by forcing upon the old order scientific principles of which it knew nothing and was naturally skeptical. So his work had the greater merit, seeing that he was largely the pioneer in the field.

His great work

in

introducing a

facture illustrates very clearly acter which vision

new

made up

was shown

new

process of steel

many prominent

traits

his wonderful personality.

in his recognition

manu-

of char-

His broad

of the possibilities of a

material of construction, while his courage and perti-

nacity in overcoming every obstacle to success were effec-

upon conservative and unwilling this steel of which they were for many years doubtful and at costs which his keen undertively

employed

in forcing

engineers and railroad

men

standing of the economics of production 18

made

possible.

Since the development of the industries by the Engineers under the leadership of Mr. Carnegie was his life work, todayit is

my

privilege to say a

word

as to his recognition of,

great contribution to, the profession.

home

The

and

building of this

of the engineering profession in which

we

are assem-

Mr. Carnegie's expressed appreciation of the Engineer and the part which the profession had played bled owes

in his

eties

its

origin to

great business success.

now having

The

various engineering soci-

have an aggregate members.

their headquarters here

association of something like 75,000

When Mr.

Carnegie decided on his munificent contribution he had several informal discussions with a committee before he reached the point of making the definite to the Engineers

proposition in writing, and an interesting incident occurred on

that occasion, illustrative of yet other traits which conduced to his success.

Having taken an embossed sheet of paper and

pen, he proceeded to write: "// will give

me

One Union Building

great pleasure to give, say,

million dollars to erect a suitable

for you all"

and while writing an ink spot spoiled the sheet. He then folded the sheet, tore it across, and on the undamaged portion rewrote his formal offer. In a later letter on the subject of this gift, he illustrates still another of his personal viewpoints, when he expressed the desire to

"have this Union of Science in every department, cooperating and hence strengthening our country in

its

triumphal march of individualism against

militarism"

The inability of the Civil Engineers to participate and cooperate at that time was a great disappointment to Mr. Carnegie, but I am glad that during his life they decided to 19

home and throw

by enaccommodation so that today the profession presents a solid front to the world and

abandon

their old

in their lot here,

larging the building for their proper

boasts of the possession of the greatest purely technical library in the world, as well as the largest aggregation of professional engineering society

membership, anywhere housed

growth of the profession has been so accommodation to various associate societies whom we would gladly house with us under the same roof. This surely fulfills the vision which Mr. Carnegie saw when he built this home for Engineers, together. Already the

great that

when

we

are quite unable to furnish

in his presentation address, delivered in this audito-

rium, at the opening exercises, he said:

"/ look forward to the future of this building, and I know that the organizations to whom it is devoted will advance and continue to meet the developing needs of the age as the years roll

on"

The great wealth which the application of his genius brought to Mr. Carnegie he used to a large extent during his life to further the cause and benefit those who are workers in the industries he fathered, thereby laying the foundation for larger results

and greater expansion of those

interests in

the future years. It is seldom given to the world to express to any man during his life the appreciation in which he is held by his fellow-men for his successful accomplishments and extended beneficence, but Mr. Carnegie acted so during his life as a trustee of his great wealth to so apply it for the public good that the world was able while he yet lived to give its expression to his works. Nevertheless it is our privilege, especially as Engineers, today, to express the debt which the world

owes to him as judged by the evidence of the varied works and interests, the sum of which made up his long, happy and useful

life.

.

"He Was

a Weaver's

Lad"

Address by John H. Finley

HE

was a weaver's lad

—

this

boy bearing the name who became the

of the practical disciple, Andrew,

patron saint of Scotland.

was Andrew who

said

I

say "practical," for

when asked how

it

the thousands on the

shores of Galilee were to be fed: "There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?" And had this disciple beheld, in the year of his Lord 1847, in the land to which he had become patron saint, the want and misery due to the stopping of the hand looms by the coming of steam machines, and had then seen this wee Dunfermline lad, he might have made much the same remark: "There's a lad here wi' his five senses and twa' sma' han's, but what are they amang sae mony ?" We say that it was a miracle that was performed on the shores of Galilee, when the boy's meagre store was suddenly multiplied to feed the thousands. Was it not as great a miracle that the seemingly petty store of the weaver's lad was transferred (in what is but a moment of time in His sight, to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday) transformed not only into food, but books and music and pictures and other human blessings: and not for a few thousands only, but for millions? In this miracle the Scotch lad had, to be sure, an active, aggressive, shrewd part, but it was no less a miracle, and it was one (and I say it in all reverence) that could not have been wrought even by the Almighty with the aid of this eager lad anywhere else than in the free air of America. I suspect that my knowledge of chemistry is no greater than that of Lord Morley, whose observations about phosphorus in iron ore have just been read, but I am informed that there are mysterious substances known to chemists as "catalysts" which have such potency that they bring into solution elements before seemingly insoluble and yet are themselves apparently unchanged substances often so in-

—

—

finitesimal in relation to the effects they

23

produce that

it is

who was a teacher in a Carnegie laboratory) you were "to dissolve a whole island by throwing a few crystals upon it." So the catalytic, robust, sunny spirit of this youth, who never grew old, did incomparable, incom(according to one

as

if

mensurate things in the earth. It was not merely nor chiefly that he touched the ore that was lying in the far hills beyond Superior, and transferred it from there into a girder, a bridge, a steel rail, a bit of armour plate, a beam for a sky-scraper, and in utter silence, as I have witnessed the process in the flaming sheds of Pittsburgh, with the calm pushing and pulling of a few levers, the accurate shovelling by a few hands and the deliberate testing by a few eyes wonderful as that all was and is. And it was not even that in every luminous, white-hot

—

ingot swung in the steel mills in the smoky valley of the Youghiogheny there was something for the pension of a university professor, something for an artist in New York or

on a California mountain, mathematician over his computations, for the historian over his archives, something for the teacher in the school upon the hill above, something for every worshiper in hundreds of kirks and churches, something for every one of hundreds of thousands of readers in libraries from Scotland to California, as a result of the multiplication of the childish store in his hands as he stood an immigrant lad on the shores of America, with a "fair and free field" before him. For besides those there were gifts to millions more than were reached directly and indirectly by the steel ingots. These were gifts of the alchemy of his personality that touched the spirits and imaginations of men. The material gifts were like those of Prometheus who bestowed upon Paris, something for an astronomer

something something

mortal

for the

man

the 11

Of fire

bright glory

that all arts spring from."

His supreme gifts to mankind were, however, not those of a demi-god, a Titan, working with the elements of the earth and looking down upon them as inferior creatures for whom he had made sacrifices. They were those of a very human, mortal man who loved his fellow-men, who suffered and fought and wept and rejoiced with them as one of them. He, no doubt, would not wish me to trace the name Andrew, which his Scotch mother gave him, back to the Greek, but it

was in its origin Greek nevertheless, the Greek name for "man," and he might have belonged to any age of men beginning with that of Moses or Pericles. He could have stood unembarrassed before any ruler from Pharaoh to Napoleon, and did so stand before the emperors, kings and presidents of his own day. Long before he became famous for his wealth, I have read, he was a personal friend of Gladstone, Matthew Arnold, Herbert Spencer, John Morley, and James Bryce. And, after he had become a world figure, he was still the friend of the lowliest and the poorest. He was a triumphant democrat with a genius for friendships, as great as the genius in the field in which the word "genius" has been transmuted into the "engine" and the "engineer" with a passionate love for America, with an international

mind having an

orbit of concern for the cosmos

(but with Dunfermline and Pittsburgh as

with a love for taste for that

melody

in

it;

all

its

two

foci)

and

things beautiful, but with a preordained

which had a Caledonian form or fragrance or the "auld gray toon"; the abbey bell sounding

the curfew; the scent of the heather; "songs possessed of souls caught from living lips"; the Scotch mist, even, which served to remind him "of the mysterious ways of Providence." And yet he was not servile to his ancestry, the strain of whose thoughts had run through the "radical breasts" (a phrase he has himself used) of his parents. In his love for the voice of the organ, for example, he doubtless shocked many of his psalm-singing compatriots as did David when he

25

—

danced before the ark of the Lord. And how pleased Mr. Carnegie would be with the program of this afternoon, dominated by music and crowned by an oratorio, of which he expressed such discerning appreciation in his delightful story of his travels in Great Britain, for he once said that those who

thought music an unworthy intruder in the domain of sacred dogma "should remember that the Bible tells us that in Heaven music is the principal source of happiness the sermon seems nowhere and it may go hard with such as fail to give it the first place on earth." He has unwittingly, no doubt, made the best characterization of himself in the definition of every Scotchman, who is

—

—

"two Scotchmen":

"As his land has the wild, barren, stern crags and mountain peaks around which the tempests blow, and

also the smiling valleys below where the wild

rose, the foxglove

and

the bluebell blossom, so the

Scotchman, with his rugged and hard his

intellect in

head above, has a heart below capable of being

Poetry and to the finest issues. Song are a part of his nature. Touch his head and he will begin and argue with you to the last; touch his heart and he falls upon your breast."

touched

.

.

.

These two men did not struggle against each other in the one energetic, restless body, but helped each other. The poet enhanced the deed (for as Mr. Carnegie said, "to do things is only one-half the battle; to be able to tell the world what you have done that is the greater accomplishment"). And the hard-headed man put the poetry into everyday life, with an enchanting book, or the celestial voice of an organ, or an illuminating statistic, or an eternal truth for the first time

—

discovered, or a telescope revealing the differing glory of the stars, or the stirring voice of the

or a

symphony ending

it.

26

bagpipes making the day,

whom

I heard preach this morning Edinburgh in whose window little figures of kings and queens and princes and others were displayed, with the sign (which has given title to one of Robert

The Scotch

minister

referred to a little shop in

Louis Stevenson's essays),

"A Penny

ored." Mr. Carnegie's figures were his generous,

warm

Plain,

all

Twopence Colcolored by

colored

—

heart.

The two Scotchmen

in

him were held together in happy New World breadth

partnership by an American tolerance, a

of generosity (which

is

not usually associated with the Scotch)

and a Western humor which had, however, a tang of the moors in it, and was over-conscious of the ethics of the golf links. I have a vivid memory of one characteristic bit of his kindly, quiet wit at my own expense. We had played a few

my first game of golf with him, when my conscience, beginning to trouble me, provoked me to question whether I ought to be out in the country away from my work playing holes in

"Oh," he said, quick as a flash, "Pritchett and both certify that you are not playing golf." And when we played our last game together, it was out by the Dornoch Firth, in the first days of the Great War in August of 1914. After he had finished the game, which he must have divined would be the last, he gave me his putter with this inscription in his own hand: "A very close game: couldn't have been closer so equally and badly we play." Ah! If we could all but play the game of life as manfully golf with him. I will

and

cheerfully, as eagerly, as fearlessly, as hopefully,

and

with as kind a heart as he, we might be proud of our score, even though he, a Scotchman, would go no farther than to admit of his own "it micht ha' bin waur."

dark Brook of the Shadow he's gone and the moors toward the dawn, This Laird o' the castle by Dornoch's gray Firth To find the Great Peace he had soughtfor the earth.

Beyond

On

the

over the hills

27

"The Life

and Work of Andrew Carnegie" Address by Elihu

Root

THE

possession and expenditure of great wealth ob-

scures the personality of the possessor.

of wealth, whether

The worship

be that kind of worship which finds its expression in mere longing for possession or in sycophancy, or whether it be that kind of worship which finds its

it

expression in envy and bitterness, will dazzle the eyes and

prevent people from seeing through to the man. It is very much as with the people of a strange and ill-understood race, the racial similarity obscures the individual characteristics

and they

will all look alike to us.

A great many of the people of the United States

and of the

world have learned to think of Mr. Carnegie as a man who had amassed a great fortune and had given away large sums of money. That is a very inadequate and a very inaccurate view. He did amass a great fortune and he did in one sense, a very limited sense, give away great sums of money, but he was predominantly of the constructive type. He was a great constructor, a builder, never passive. He disposed of his fortune exactly as he made it. He belonged to that great race of nation builders who have made the progress and development of America the wonder of the world; who have exhibited the capacity of free, undominated individual genius for building up the highest example of the possibilities of freedom for nations.

Mr. Carnegie in amassing his fortune always gave more than he gained. His money was not taken from others. His money was the by-product of great constructive ability which served others; which contributed to the great business enterand built up and carried to success and through those enterprises gave to the world great advance in comfort and the possibilities of broader and happier life. The steps by which mankind proceeds from naked savagery to civilized society are the steps that are taken by just prises that he conceived

such constructive geniuses.

When Mr.

Carnegie had amassed his fortune, the magni3

1

tude of which rested upon the introduction of the Bessemer method of making steel into America, with all the advance and the progress that that means, when Mr. Carnegie had amassed his fortune and had come to the point of retiring from money-making enterprise, it was impossible for him to retire. His nature made it impossible that he should become passive and he turned his constructive genius and the great constructive energy that urged him on, by the necessities of his nature, toward the use of the money which he had amassed. He never, in the ordinary sense, gave away his fortune. He used his fortune, and what may seem to some casual observer the giving away was the securing of agents for the use of his fortune to carry out his purposes.

He

brought to the work

in the

second period of his

life,

work of his life, some very marked characteristics. First was the urgency to do, to continue to do something. Another was the distinct understanding of the difference between using his money for the purpose that he had in his own mind and being a mark for others to make an instrument of him for their purposes. He had also a very distinct understanding of the difficulty of making a good use of money. He knew how easy it was to waste it. He knew what a danger there was of doing harm by the use of it and he applied to the problem of its use the same sagacity that he applied to the problem of making steel and marketing it. Long ago before he retired from business, he had stated his idea in an article in the North American Review where he this greatest

said:

"The main consideration should be to help others by helpthem to help themselves, to provide a part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aid by which they may rise; to

ing

—

but rarely or never to do all. Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving." So he never held the grab bag, and he brought to the consideration of the way assist

32

—

in

which he should use

his

money not only great

sagacity but

great pains and assiduity and continuous labor. Another

thing which played a great part in this second period of his

was that he had a very definite conception as to what would contribute to human happiness. In that conception, the mere possession of money played no part. It did not enter his mind that he could in general make men happy by giving them money; but he had brought from his boyhood memories of the longings of the little Scotch weaver's boy. From close, intimate contact with the poor, from the daily round of dreary toil, he had brought a knowledge of the human heart, such as Lincoln brought to the problems of our country during the stress of the Civil War from his experience life

as a boy.

Doubtless as he watched the stationary engine which was he stood at the machine of the telegrapher, as he went to his daily duties as Division Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, he had had his dreams. He had built his palaces in the clouds and from his task in Pittsburgh, as

the heart of the boy, that never

left

him, he translated his human happi-

longings into his theory of the possibilities of ness.

He

said something in his letter to the trustees in establish-

ing the Dunfermline Trust which told the story.

He

said to

them that it gave him great pleasure "to bring into the monotonous lives of the toiling masses of Dunfermline more of sweetness and light." Then there is the last characteristic, which I will mention. He was the kindliest man I ever knew. Wealth had brought to him no hardening of the heart, nor made him forget the dreams of youth. Kindly, affectionate, charitable in his judgments, unrestrained in his sympathy, noble in his impulses, I wish all the people who think of him as a rich man giving away money he did not need could know of the hundreds of kindly things that he did unknown 33

to the

world

the old friends remembered, the widows and children cared for,

the tender memories of his youth, and

all

who were

associated with him.

And

so with this great constructive energy, with this dis-

criminating Scotch sagacity, with this accurate conception of the possibilities of the use of money, with those definite

views as to the sources of human happiness and with this heart overflowing with kindness, he entered upon his second career, undertaking to use these

hundreds of millions and

not to waste them. The first thing that he did was to turn to the associates of his early struggles

and

charitable things, as

his early successes.

men

He had done many

ordinarily do, while

still

engaged

But when he came to the dividing line between money-getting and the money-using epochs, he turned to in business.

And he

attempted there to apply his He began with a library, the endowment of a great library, and he tells us what it was that led him to that. It was the memory of a library of four hundred volumes which Colonel Anderson of Allegheny, over across the river from Pittsburgh, had opened for the use of the boys when Andrew Carnegie was too poor to buy a book. The first thing he did was to use his money to swing open for others the doors of knowledge which gave to him the bright light, the little learning, that could come from Colonel Anderson's four hundred volumes. He endowed a great library. And then he established the Institute of Pittsburgh. What was the first great reaction the establishment of the of this hard-headed steel maker Institute of Pittsburgh in which he invested nearly #30,000,000. Under it he established an art museum and a music hall and a museum of science. For he knew by the knowledge that came from the experience of his life that after men and women have all that is necessary to eat and to wear and for Pittsburgh.

first

theories to the possibilities of giving happiness.

—

34

—

shelter,

come great opportunities

for increase of

happiness in

cultivation of taste, in the cultivation of appreciation for the beautiful in the world.

And

so after the library

the music hall and then the

came the

museum

art

museum, and then

of science.

And

those he

followed with the establishment of a technical school for the

education of the working people of Pittsburgh.

And

the next development was at the

hood, his parents'

home

in

Dunfermline.

home I

of his child-

have read to you

the reason which he gave in his letter to the Trustees of Dunfermline, and he worked that out by presenting the Trustees for the use of the people of Dunfermline, these toiling masses, a great park in which he set gardens, playgrounds

and gymnasiums

and swimming baths, and a sanitary

school and a library in order that recreation and joyful

come to lighten up the days of toil. Then he made his gift to the four universities of Scotland St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Ten million dollars he gave to them these universities, toward things might

—

—

which he had never been able to bend his steps in youth onehalf to be used for improving the university and developing the teaching of science, history, economics and modern language, and one-half to pay the fees of the young men of Scotland who were unable to pay for themselves, giving to all the Scotch boys the opportunity that had been denied to him. And then having expressed his feelings in the home of his childhood and the home of his success, he broadened out and he established and endowed richly the Institution of Washington, the institution for research and the application of science for the good of mankind. Then he established the Foundation, still broadening, for the Advancement of Teaching, with its pension fund so that the teachers of America might not look forward to poverty in the old

age that follows the laborious

And he added

to that a separate

35

life

of the teacher.

fund for investigation and

study

methods of teaching under which teaching

in the

gradually being standardized, and

its

is

defects, faults, short-

comings discovered so that its institution is not only providing for the teachers but systematic education by the teachers. Still broadening in his view, he turned his attention to the maintenance of international peace, and with an impulse so natural to establish a hero fund for encouraging and noting properly heroism of those who lived in peace and in competition with the popular worship of heroism in war. That fund is being administered by trustees and heroic acts in being signalized by medals, by money gifts, by providing homes, by pensions for widows whatever seems the most appropriate to the occasion. civil life are

—

And he moved one step farther and established the Endowfor International Peace. And that designed to go a

ment little

farther than the

that war

be

is

mere expression of

feeling, the feeling

horrible, detestable; the feeling that peace should

made permanent and

secure.

That endowment was

de-

signed and adapted to securing the evidence upon which

argument and persuasion in favor of peace and against war may be based; and it has been publishing and making available for

all

scholars,

all

students,

all

intelligent

facts regarding international relations, the

men

the true

law of nations,

the rights and wrongs and duties of nations, in the great books that have been written from which men may learn their international rights and duties; in another division it has been making careful scientific studies of the economics and history of war and in another promoting international intercourse and education. Incidentally, as he was developing these

plans in

all

these different directions, he seized

upon

special

occasions for doing particular things which would further his plans.

He

built the great

Peace Palace at The Hague to

strike the imagination of the world with the idea of peace

rather than war.

Washington

He

built the

Pan-American building at good understanding and

to furnish a center for

36

—

North and South America.

friendly intercourse between

He

built a great building for the Central

of Justice in Costa Rica.

He

American Court

established another trust for

the special use of the churches in their

work

in

favor of peace.

and incidents development of his great plans. The plans, of course, grew as he went on, and then having his five great trusts in this country, he added to his trust in Europe by creating the United Kingdom Trust, which was chiefly for the purpose of building libraries, and he developed his own work of library building in America as a result of which nearly 3,000 libraries built' by Andrew Carnegie now open their doors for the people of America as Colonel Anderson opened his door to Andrew Carnegie so many years ago. And as he studied education, he turned his mind toward the colleges, and chiefly towards the poor colleges, chiefly towards the smaller colleges to which the poor boys go, and with most solicitous examination and discrimination he put his money where he thought it would be used to best advantage, here and there and there, until finally more than five hundred American colleges are using his money today money amounting to over #20,000,000. And before the end came he organized a single corporation. All those things were but special occasions

in the course of his

He

incorporated his activities in the Carnegie Corporation,

and he put into the Board of Trustees of that Corporation the heads of the five principal, special institutions which he had created in this country the President of the Institute

—

of Pittsburgh, the President of the Research Institution of

Washington, the President of the Endowment

for Inter-

Hero Fund and the President of the Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. They make up the majority of the Board of Trustees. national Peace, the President of the

To that Corporation he gave the great bulk of the remainder of his fortune amassed during his lifetime, $125,000,000, to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge 37

and understanding among the people of the United States; and he continued as President of that Corporation to direct its affairs and the use of its money during his life. I said that he had not been giving away his money in the strict sense. Far from it. He secured as the agents for the use of his money, for the accomplishment of his noble and beneficent purposes, a great body of men whom no salaries could have attracted, whom no payment could have induced to serve; but who served because the inherent value of the purposes to which Mr. Carnegie summoned them commanded them to serve Joseph H. Choate, John Hay, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, President Eliot, Andrew D. White, Major

—

Higginson, Alexander Agassiz, John

Cadwalader, and

S.

many others who have

Billings,

John L.

already passed from

Mr. Carnegie. Of that group President Eliot alone remains, as President Emeritus of Harvard, a wise observer of the development of the times. But that group of citizens to which Mr. Carnegie gave control of the institutions he created, have been endeavoring to seek, and find, as one by one they pass off the stage, new and competent agents to execute Mr. Carnegie's great policies. The world has not been able yet to appreciate Mr. Carnegie. We who knew him and loved him and honored him can now express our judgment, but we are about to pass away. Yet their active labor as has

the works that he inaugurated are

upon so great

a scale

and

are designed to accomplish such great purposes that as the years, the generations

and the centuries go on, they

more

the true character of the founder.

clearly exhibit

will the

Centuries later men of science will be adding to human knowledge, teachers will be opening the book of learning to the young, friends of peace will be winning the children of civilization from brutality to kindliness; and Andrew Carnegie, the little Scotch weaver's son, will live in the evermore manifest greatness of the achievement that was the outcome of his great and noble heart. (Hearty applause.)

38

Lord Morley Viscount Bryce

William H. Taft

8

Flowermead, Wimbledon Park, Surrey. Easter Day, 1920.

Calvin W. Rice, Esq. Dear Sir:

You

how heartily alive I am to the honour of Warmly do I prize the kindness and good

will believe

your invitation.

makes the various bodies for whom you speak me with Mr. Elihu Root and other Americans of note in this loyal commemoration of a truly remarkable man who belonged to both countries and with whom I enjoyed a very close and, as you say, almost a lifelong friendfeeling that

desire to join

ship. I had been made known to him in the early eighties by Matthew Arnold, and I had my last letter from him in 191

—a

letter as fervid in its

attachment as any of the long cata-

logue that had gone before.

As for a message, I can hardly do more than repeat what I have often said about him in this long space of time. He was already beginning to prove his variety of social and intellectual interests, his originality, fulness of mind, and bold strength of character, as tion of wealth as he quisition.

much

had shown

skill

more in the distribuand foresight in its ac-

or

His extraordinary freshness of

spirit easily carried

Arnold, Herbert Spencer, myself and afterwards

many others,

high over an occasional crudity in phrase or haste in judg-

ment, such as may befall the best of us in ardent hours. People with a genius for picking up pins made as much as they liked of this. It was wiser to do justice to his spacious feeling for the great objects in the world for knowledge and its spread, for invention, lightjimprovement of social relations, equal chances to the talents, the passion for peace. These are glorious things; a touch of exaggeration in expression is easy to set right. Only let us think how few among our contemporaries have gone through the manifold perils of prosperity more

—

4i

beneficently.

How

many, or how few, who, having fought

for

material success for themselves, have been more eager and more active in discovering and opening new avenues of success for others? Such was our friend.

He

lived

and worked with his ideals, drudging over them life. He maintained the habit of applying

every day of his

own mind either to the multifarious projects that flooded upon him from outside, or to elaborating the independent notions that sprang up within him from his observant com-

his in

sense in union with the milk of human kindness. Rapidenergy, confident enthusiasm, were the mark of his days. High spirits are to be no small part of the whole duty of man.

mon

ity,

Invincible optimism, either as to the whole world's progressive course, or the disappearance of obstacles to any wise enterprise in particular, sometimes, I will confess, provoked

a fugitive

shadow of impatience

unhappily of a

key

to life

less

in those like

myself perhaps

mercurial temperament. It was in fact his

when he

said that, having retired from

all

other

had become to do as much good as he could in the world. This was no mere sentence it was no more than plain and literal truth. This is the double aim and intention and purpose, coherently and perseveringly maintained to the end of long days, that make his name a word for an energetic and memorable career of private duty and public service. Though the most intrepid of men like many others of that sort, he did not fail in the tests of common sense and prudence; at the same time, it was a common thing with him to think ahead and march in advance of what was expected or demanded from him either by individuals or by companies business, his business

—

of them.

explained to me how one of the master difficulties production of steel was the unwelcome presence of phosphorus, and I in turn explained to him how one of the

He often

in the

master objects in literature and in common life is to get the phosphorus out of human nature. In this great task nobody

42

a

was more eager to learn in all its bearings the new spirit of and nobody more ready to watch, measure, apply alike its denials and its affirmatives. His faith in books and education as correctives of the hated phosphorus was attested by the uncounted collections of books with which out of his affluence he endowed both sides of the Atlantic. Differences of taste and opinion about books and willingness to tolerate them are true tests and trials of friendship. Our friend and I found plenty of such differences, and I had an instinct that he did not cordially fall in with the maxim that in criticism we should have preferences but few exclusions. Enough after all that he had rich gaiety of heart fervent love of Burns and a radiant, well-equipped and everflowing enthusiasm for Shakespeare. His ready delight in all the fair scenes and seasons of outside nature was matched by his interest in the cares, concerns and converse of mankind's curious world inside. One of the leading elements in him was his implacable his times,

—

hatred of War, as the only

way

or the best

international quarrels. Passionate all

was

his

way

of adjusting

impatience with

the plausible sophisms and impious platitudes with which

statesmen

will strive to hide

away

costly blunders, their irremediable

their short sight, their

and uncompensated catas-

trophes.

But here to bring

full

my

time has come for me, with sincere respects,

message to a

close.

Yours very

faithfully,

John Morley.

43

3

Buckingham Gate, London,

S.

W.

April

i,

1920.

i.

Calvin W. Rice, Esq., Secretary Memorial Committee

In

Honor of Mr. Carnegie.

My dear Sir: am

extremely pleased to hear of the memorial meeting commemoration of Mr. Carnegie's life and work, and enclose a short message. I

to be held in

I

am, Faithfully yours,

James Bryce.

Since

I

cannot be present at the meeting to commemorate

Mr. Carnegie's life and services to the world, may I be permitted to convey in a few sentences the impression which his character and career made upon me. He combined two qualities not often found in conjunction an ardent enthusiasm for the ends which inspired his efforts, and a cautious, practical judgment in selecting the means by which those ends could be attained. He was perfectly clear as to what he wished to do, perfectly resolute in adhering to what he deemed the best methods for succeeding. Concentration was for him the secret of success. By it he had attained wealth; by it, that is to say by doing a few things skilfully and thoroughly, he endeavored to spend his wealth in the ways most likely to do good. It was thus that he was enabled to accomplish so much. A man's quality is tested by the ideals he forms and by his

—

resolute persistence in giving effect to them. If I to

sum up

may venture

these ideals, they were the following:

— a general

knowledge through all classes, the advancement of science and its application to the betterment of human life, diffusion of

the provision for the masses of the people of the means of enjoying the best pleasures, the establishment of peace and good-will

among

in the clearness

nations.

all

These were noble

ideals

and there was an element of genius

with which he saw them, in the steadiness

with which he pursued them, and in the presight which

made

him feel that he must not prescribe too minutely the means by which his wishes should be carried out in the future by

whom

he entrusted his splendid benefactions. be remembered as one of the first who enounced, and perhaps the first who carried out on a vast scale, the principle that wealth is a trust for the community, and that he those to

He

will

who has obtained

it

ought to begin at once

in his

own time

to discharge the duties that trust imposes.

By

those

among

us

who knew him

intimately for

many

years he will be remembered as a most genial and a most loyal

open in his thoughts, happy in trying around him, whether in the dear land of the Great Republic of his birth or in his adopted country whose citizenship he was so proud. friend, simple in his life,

to spread happiness

—

James Bryce. April ist, 1920.

45

Dallas, Texas, April 18, 1920.

J.

Vipond Da vies, Esq.,

Chairman, Memorial Meeting.

Dear Sir: I

greatly regret that engagements long since entered into

prevent

my

being present at the memorial meeting for Mr.

me much pleasure to testify to the Andrew Carnegie rendered to his fellow-

Carnegie. It would give great services which

men.

Now

that he has gone, and

it is

possible to regard his

career in retrospect, his remarkable character stands out.

One of the

first

Americans to accumulate an immense fortune,

he emphasized, in a way that no one else has, the responsibility of wealthy men to use their wealth for the benefit of the

community and mankind.

It is clear that his example has been the chief impulse to the wonderful overflowing generosity of the rich men of this country in promoting philanthropic purpose. He preached, in everything he had to say, the duty of men of means to regard their wealth as a trust, and he practiced it with such constant effort that he overwhelmed prejudice, envy, jealous suspicion and all the other

human

would cloud the and far-visioned philanthropy. The range of Mr. Carnegie's benefactions was as wide as the range of his many interests, and that it might be wider, he put a large part of his estate in the hands of trustees for beneficent use, without limitations upon its application, realizing that the future would develop needs which he could ungracious

traits that too frequently

just credit due to sincere

not anticipate. In securing his humane purposes, Mr. Carnegie brought to bear his remarkable business shrewdness and foresight in the detail of his provisions. When he was making arrangements to secure the service of trustees, he never failed to secure the

interest of their wives in the task assigned, so that in a

they might act jointly.

way

No done.

one can measure the good which his benefactions have The spread of information through his many libraries,

the value of the results of the research in all fields of science of the Carnegie Foundation, the help to the general cause of education in the thorough survey and revelation of defects in our system, can be traced directly to Mr. Carnegie. What he created has become an institution of a public nature, so widespread in its effect that there is danger that what has

been done will become impersonal in the public mind and his agency as a leader in bringing it about will be minimized. His profound interest in peace appears in everything he did and said. It was in that field where to

meet him and

to

earnest seeking for gift to establish

me

was

my good fortune

the Carnegie Peace Foundation he consulted it, as he left other funds, to be

before making, and he left

administered by worthy full

it

come to know his hatred of war and his some means to avoid it. His magnificent

discretion to turn

Few men have

it

men

after he should be gone, with

to its

most

effective use.

lived as consistent a

life

as he.

Few men

have preached and practiced to the same end as completely as he. Asserting that no man should die leaving a great fortune without disposing of it for the benefit of mankind, he parted with everything except a reasonable provision for his family, and his whole fortune continuing his benefactions lives after him to bear witness to his sincere adherence to his ideals.

Sincerely yours,

Wm. H. Taft.

47

Peace-Hymn of the Republic O

Lord our God, Thy mighty hand Hath made our country free; From all her broad and happy land

May

praise arise to Thee.

Fulfill

Her

the promise of her youth,

liberty defend;

By law and order, love and truth, America befriend! The

strength of every state increase In Union's golden chain;

Her thousand cities fill with peace, Her million fields with grain. The virtues of her mingled blood In one new people blend;

By unity and brotherhood, America befriend!

O

suffer not her feet to stray;

But guide her untaught might, That she may walk in peaceful day,

And

lead the world in light.

Bring

down

the proud,

lift

up the poor,

Unequal ways amend;

By justice,

nation-wide and sure,

America befriend! Thro'

all

the waiting land proclaim

Thy gospel of good- will; And may the music of Thy name In every bosom O'er

hill

and

thrill.

vale,

from sea to

sea,

Thy holy reign extend; By faith and hope and charity, America befriend!

Henry van Dyke.

The Marchbanks New York

Press